Double Take

As I was opening my bottle of beer this morning.... ha, I was making beer bread, justsoyaknow, I had to look twice at the bottle cap.

The beer was one of the New Glarus (WI) Brewing Company beers. On the top of the cap is a picture of Wisconsin and in bold letters encircling the state I read what I thought said, "Drink Responsibly". You know, don't drink and drive and all that jazz. Well, as I looked at the cap again I realized it said, "Drink Indigenous". I thought that was clever.

Okay, that's it. Go about your blog reading.

Dear Carla,

Here is a link to a wonderful page that will explain the process of egg laying and where the egg comes from.

I was going to post the information on the blog but thought it may be just too much information for some. I was going to explain it myself but then, again, thought it may be too much information. The page does a much better job explaining than I ever could anyhow.

www.afn.org/~poultry/egghen.htm

I saw Henrietta lay that big double yolker. It was really neat. I never saw the actual laying of an egg before. Very cool.

Work From Home Days...

A few weeks ago Matthew decided he'd work from home once in awhile. We put together a nice desk for him downstairs, got a cordless phone and he hooked up some gizmo to the computer upstairs so he can use the internet downstairs. It's nice to have him home sometimes.

This is what I walked into on one of his "work from home" days... watching Dora, no doubt.

Update #2

I thought I'd update you all on my mom. Once in awhile somebody asks me about Mom so....here we go.

As you can see she has no problem gallivanting up north for week and fishing for hours on end in the boat with Dad. This is good.

Mom did have a check-up recently to go over the residual affects of the Bell's Palsy. Her good eye is actually the one causing a bit of concern. If I understood correctly the good eye was over working and, as a result, started to get a little droopy. This happens sometimes. The doctor said as long as it doesn't get worse and interfere with her vision, there is nothing that needs to be done. If, however, it does start to droop into her line of sight then my mom gets to go in for reconstructive surgery. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd say that about my mom. Ha!

Thank you all for your prayers. We appreciate them. Mom is doing great and one can't even tell she ever had that goofy virus in the first place. She healed very, very fast. Yeah!

Impressed

Henrietta, although we sincerely appreciate your efforts, for your sake, slow it down. We now fully understand why we had to wait 3 whole days between eggs, yikes. I apologize for being impatient, apparently you were just trying to impress us. It worked. You shall not ever become chicken noodle soup, I promise.







(Henrietta's very first egg compared to large grocery store egg)

(Henrietta's egg from yesterday compared to large grocery store egg)

note: this means the white egg in both pictures are the same size. Henrietta layed a whopper yesterday.

Anna's Prayer

Dee-oh God,

Sank You fo' my spoon and sank You fo' my Gammy. Sank You fo' my fam-oh-yee too.

Amen.

Overheard Conversation

Time: Yesterday 4:30pm

Overheard Speakers: Isaiah and Anna

Location: Isaiah (bathroom)
Anna (outside bathroom door)

Conversation:
Anna- Isaiah? Isaiah, where are you?
Isaiah- Anna, I'm in here. I'll be out in a minute.
Anna- Isaiah?
Isaiah- Yes?
Anna- I love you.
Isaiah- I love you too, Anna.

Nine Years

Who would have thought nine years ago that on our 9th anniversary we'd have woken up in a queen sized bed with two children who couldn't sleep the night before sandwiched in between? In the words of the youngest blanket-stealer, "Amazin'!" I love you!

Nine Years Ago Today...

October 8, 1999.

I worked 1/2 of a day and went out to lunch with our good friend from college, Dave Clark. I had been friends with Dave since we were freshman. Later, Dave got to know Matthew and that is how Matt and I got to know each other. Anyways, Dave came up from Florida to be one of Matthew's groomsman. We had lunch at Applebees, in Hudson, and then ran to Target. We then went back to Baldwin, where Matthew and I were living, and Dave, Matthew and I got ready for the wedding rehearsal and dinner.

I don't remember what time everything started but, I do remember scrambling to find something dressy enough to wear. Planning the wedding and all that it entails wasn't really my thing. Apparently what I was going to wear to the rehearsal never crossed my mind until a couple hours beforehand. I know we made it on time, however.

Pastor Larry did a great job making everyone feel comfortable. I remember too that Matthew and I had been to a wedding either earlier in the year or the year before and noticed the wedding party getting sloshed before the wedding. I did NOT want that repeated at our wedding so Larry made a comment about how important the next day was to Matthew and I and how we didn't want that to happen. We thought the "rules" would be taken more seriously if Larry said them, not us. Yep, Larry did the dirty work for us.

Matthew and I did want to be walked down the aisle by both of our parents. Matthew's folks walked him down the aisle at the beginning of the service, first thing. Then, after all the attendants were up front my mom and dad walked me down.
















We went through the whole ceremony, vows and all. I was an absolute wreck. I couldn't get through anything. I cried the whole time, then laughed because I was crying, then cried some more. Oddly, I didn't cry at all during our actual wedding. I must have gotten it all out of my system. Matthew, I think, just thought I was a nut.





















After we walked through it all a couple times we went to the rehearsal dinner. We had decided we didn't want to have the dinner at a restaurant where you only talk with the person next to you. We wanted to do something more casual where everyone is together. We opted to have the dinner at my folks' home. We had take-out pizza and subs. It was lots of fun. More relaxing, too. Then, Matthew went back to our house with his buddies and I spent the night at my mom and dad's. I don't think I slept very well. I do know I hopped in bed and after I tried to fall asleep for a little bit hopped right back out and ran to the bathroom. I had completely forgotten to pluck my eyebrows!!!!

Bayfield and Madeline

Matthew and I will celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary on Thursday, October Ninth. Matthew has been insisting that this will be our Golden Anniversary. I keep saying although it feels like 50 years sometimes it doesn't really work like Golden Birthdays. Semantics, I suppose. At any rate, last weekend, we did something we've never done, ever. We had my mom and dad watch Isaiah and Anna for the entire weekend and we actually went out-of-town. Three and a half hours away! This was a major accomplishment for me. I did a lot of praying last week that God would grant me strength and trust. Believe me you, this was an anxiety attack waiting to happen. I did it though. My mom helped a lot, she followed my requests on everything to perfection. Thank you, mom!

As the title suggest, we went up to the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. We spent the day Friday in Bayfield, WI and took in all that is Apple Fest. Apparently Apple Fest is one of the biggest festivals in the entire universe, or something like that. Due to the fact that it was Apple Fest there was no room at the inn for Matthew and I. We ended up staying on Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands. There is no bridge, one takes a ferry over to the island, it's about a 20-25 minute ferry ride. I believe the distance is 2 miles, or 2 1/2 miles.

Well, Friday we left our house at about 8:30 and drove up to Bayfield. We ate lunch at the Rittenhouse Inn, it's a bed & breakfast that is open to the public for breakfast and lunch. It was very yummy. I'm happy we made it in time. They have a small window of time in which they serve lunch. It was well worth the early departure time.


(outside the Rittenhouse Inn)

After we ate lunch we walked down to the Apple Fest shindig. There were tons of neat craft vendors, apples galore, music and people watching. I was still very full from lunch but Matthew couldn't resist an apple brat. Had to have one. I tasted some of the apple mustard he put on the brat and it was pretty darn good. We found some goodies for the kids and ended up getting some pottery for ourselves. We always admire the pottery while at craft fairs and never get any, not this time. We found a beautiful serving plate with a bowl for dip and a little dip spreader, knife type of thing. Later, my mom told me that pottery is the traditional 9th wedding anniversary gift. I think I knew that subconsciously but thought it pretty neat that we broke down and bought the pottery.

(near the marina in Bayfield, enjoying Apple Fest)



When we had finished wandering the streets of Bayfield it was time to hop on the ferry and travel over to Madeline Island. The ferry service has a bunch of ferries and the the boats leave, for the most part, every 1/2 hour. It's very convenient and easy to plan when you will come and go.

(this is the ferry that was going to Bayfield as we were traveling to the island)


We checked into our little rental house that we would be staying at and were delighted to find out we'd be on the other side of the island. Matthew and I both thought we'd be in town, La Pointe, but found out we needed to drive about 9 miles to the other side of island and would be staying right on Big Bay. Although it was cold at night, in the 30's, we kept the windows open a bit to hear the powerful waves crashing right outside our door. I'm used to the gentle little lapping sound of little lakes or rivers. Not on the shores of Superior, man oh man, were they loud. Lovely.

Saturday we stayed on Madeline and enjoyed hanging out at Big Bay town park. It is a beautiful park.



(this little foot bridge spans an inlet of water from Superior into the park)












(standing on the bridge looking inland)








(standing on the bridge looking out to Superior)










(hee hee, our initials in the sand)



(Matthew took this footage on the beach. My little kick at the end was me saying don't film me.)


Sunday we were up at 6am to catch the 7am ferry back to Bayfield. We had a super time but were in a major hurry to get home to our babies. God had a beautiful display for us on the boat ride over. The steam was rising up off the lake and it made for an amazing sunrise.

Happy Anniversary, Matthew! I love ya a ton.